Orbis Catholicus Secundus

www.orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.com

Second Annual European Pro-Life March

Last year was a big success.

Be there this year to pray and show your support.

Pray, fast and do penance for an end to abortion.

www.marchforlife.be

UPDATE: Ubis est Orbis Catholicus?

Here is the now current domain:

http://www.orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.com/.

Tuam Sindonem Veneramur, Domine, et Tuam Recolimus Passionem

Shroud of Turin.

FYI: New URL for this blog...

Address change.

Link here: http://www.orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.ca/.

Find the photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/home?source=bloggerpromo&pli=1&gsessionid=9mn5Oo9ULfslK_MktPBntA.

Restauravit et ornavit a.D. 2009.

Why I support the return of the sedia gestatoria...

AP photo from the Internet.

Paul's final reason sure makes sense to me:

"He [Pope Paul] wanted to abolish the special chair which carried him on four [um, actually it was more than four] mens' shoulders, but no solution was found to allow the pilgrims to see the Pope easily."

-Paul VI by Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, p. 65.

Rumours are rumours and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Announcing: SECVNDVS...

New blog, same stuff.

Secundus natus est, venite...

Link here and hope everybody likes it: http://www.orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.ca/.

And many thanks to Mr. S. Tribe (founder and editor of the NLM) for helping me out with the new design and other features!

Catholic Church architecture: still possible...

See here: http://beatusest.blogspot.com/.

There are just a few legends left who can still design and build a Catholic church that actually has the ethos of a Catholic church.  Imagine that?

If you are a pastor or a member of a diocesan or parish building/renovation committee, then you need to contact one of these professionals and get things rolling on the right from the start:

Duncan: http://www.stroik.com/
Thomas: http://www.thomasgordonsmitharchitects.com/
Matthew: http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/
Erik: http://beatusest.blogspot.com/

You will find yourself in good hands with these legends - the finest English-speaking Catholic church architects of today and that's just the way it is.

Vrbs Capvt Orbis: the eagle has landed...

Friends:

Many thanks!

For the Lord Jesus was with His apostles as He had promised (Cf. Mt. 28:20) and sent to them as Paraclete the Spirit Who would lead them into the fullness of truth (cf. Jn. 16:13)...

With the continued pervading tone of change in the Church today this blog has always sought to introduce youth to their Catholic inheritance and to encourage some to study in Roma Beata. Catholics must be taught how to be Catholic. They must connect with Rome.

Many thanks to everybody for the advice and I ask to first hear Holy Mass and after I will make a quick decision and let everybody know asap.

Union of prayers,

JPSonnen
Datum Romae
AD MMIX

PS 70 yrs ago today was the outbreak of WWII. Pray and do penance.

FINIS: and that's all she wrote...

Brethren:

This blog, sadly, is just now at the end of its course.

There is simply no more storage room.

1013 MB (99%) of 1024 MB has been eaten up.

Hope everybody liked it.

But just remember: what was done was done for you.

Let us pray,

JPSonnen
Paulopoli de Minnesota
AD MMIX

American church architecture: 1920s splendor...

This Byzantine-Romanesque is magnificent and wonderful to see in America!

Church of St. Andrew, located in St. Paul, Minnesota.

My mother was baptized in this church after the war ended by Fr. John Buchanan (1910-1998). Fr. Buchanan died at the age of 87 but when he was in Europe during the war as an Army chaplain he did not expect to survive, as he later shared. He was, as he once told me, at D-Day where he first raised his hand across the waters to absolve the Catholic Allied soldiers and then the German Catholic soldiers. He was also in the middle of the fight at the Battle of the Bulge and received the Silver Star for heroism. He was a priest who loved the priesthood.

The Church Architect in North America: E.L. Masqueray and those who now carry the torch...

Gauge the scope of beauty seen in this temple built overlooking the upper banks of the mighty Mississippi River and be inspired.

In contrast, as everybody knows we live in an age of milquetoast church architecture.

Indifferent co-religionists are a dime a dozen. And so are dryrot church building and renovation committees who know nothing or too little of Catholic spiritual and artistic influences which they never understood (born of the ages past in large part from the mystical climate of a Catholic continent).

In recent years a remnant has worked aggressively for a restoration and an integral part of this effort has been the modern legacy of the Notre Dame School of Architecture. These guys know their stuff and have played a big part in ending the "tyranny" of modern church architecture as we know it.

Winning the age for Christianity implies a deep commitment to the best church architecture.

Defining the new role today we have a new crop of legends such as Duncan Stroik (http://www.stroik.com/) and Matthew Alderman (http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/) and Erik Bootsma ( http://beatusest.blogspot.com/) who are Catholic architects (men of art who believe and design and build).

It's an easy collaboration: you just need pious and generous laity, talented architects who believe and a dynamic bishop or pastor with the guts. The vitality of Western civilization has already taught us what and how to build.

Archbishop John Ireland led Minnesota Catholics for 33 years. As a young student he had spent eight years of seminary training in France (Meximieux and Montbel) and this is when he became full of admiration for the splendor of Medieval and Renaissance Christendom.

Enraptured with European church architecture he once said: "They were truly monuments of faith and piety, and more eloquently than the most eloquent pages of written history they tell us that in older times the children of the Church were giants in devotion to religion."

In the top photo is the Cathedral of Saint Paul located on Cathedral Hill overlooking Saint Paul, Minnesota. The architect was Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, a man who was able to translate into stone the full significance of the meaning of a great Christian temple.

With his pencil he drew religion's meaning, religion's history, religion's purposes.

Masqueray yielded a score of commissions for the Church in the Northwest and his fine works stand today. His pencilling finger understood Catholic Europe and this helps us to see the value of having a requisite for all serious students of design - they ought to study in Europe.

Masqueray was born in Dieppe, France in 1861 and was raised in Rouen and in 1873 the family moved to Paris. In 1879 when he was 17 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the oldest and most prestigious fine arts schools in the world. He then went on to live in Italy for two years and during that time he was able to further develop his understanding of historically minded, highly intellectual architecture. In the 1880s he moved to NYC. In 1905 he moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota where he is today buried at Calvary Cemetery.

The criteria for proper design used by Masqueray were the same as those used by the French philosophical eclectics earlier in his century to test the validity of an idea: truth, beauty and goodness. The latter two, according to the Beaux-Arts tradition, were achieved by following that classical style so familiar and acceptable to the public, the first demanded not only that a design take into account the vagaries of location and climate, but also, and more importantly, that the exterior of a building clearly relfect the purpose for which it was constructed. Finally, once having achieved its desired state, a design was to never be altered. The aura of timelessness and catholicity remain. He knew his stuff. May he pray for us and for the continued restoration in Catholic church architecture.

Fr. Paul Marx, OSB: founder of Human Life International...

This is 89-year-old Fr. Paul Marx who was ordained priest in this same chapel in 1947 at the Benedictine Abbey of St. John's in Collegeville, Minnesota. With great joy Fr. Marx spoke of the day of his ordination.

Fr. Marx is the founder of Human Life International (HLI) and the "international" pro-life movement. Faithful for Life is the name of his 1990s autobiography.

As a pioneer in the pro-life and pro-family movement Fr. Marx made the teaching of NFP to young couples a cornerstone of his ministry. Fr. Marx, who had traveled the world and studied the menace of abortion always said that "Abortion starts with contraception."

Fr. Marx is an American saint and it was a great honor to have lunch with him at the Abbey and look forward to seeing him again tomorrow!

Link here: http://www.hli.org/.

Catholic culture: the Latin letter...

This is our way. Our tradition. Our Catholic language. We are proud.

The American Saint: Mother Angelica Live...

Yes, it has proven to be a time of saints:

St. Mother M. Angelica (consecrated virgin in 1947).
St. Fulton J. Sheen (ordained priest in 1919).
St. Paul B. Marx (ordained priest in 1947).

Support her empire of global Catholic TV: http://www.ewtn.com/.

And if you can, read Mother Angelica by Raymond Arroyo, published by Doubleday in 2005.

Quote of the day:

"I'm so tired of you, liberal Church in America."

-Mother Angelica on live TV
World Youth Day, August 14, 1993.

Catholic culture: papal portrait in your home...

Teach your kids team spirit for the Church: and to show it proudly in the face of the world.

Fr. Bandas: the professor of theology...

Rt. Rev. Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas, S.T.D. et M., Ph.D. Agg.

Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities

Member of the Pontifical Roman Academy

1896 - 1969

Born in Silver Lake, Minnesota, died in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Ordained priest in 1921. Elevated to the rank of Domestic Prelate with title of Right Reverend Monsignor by Pope Pius the XII on January 15, 1955.

O God, grant that Your servant Rudolph, whom You raised to priestly dignity in the priesthood of the apostles, may now be admitted into their company forever. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

He had been a college professor, seminary rector, pastor and author of many fine books on education. Books which were translated into many languages. Buy one!

St. Peter's Basilica: back in the good old days...

The splendor of the old papal rites of the Cappella Papale.

Too much of this was done away with. Too much too quickly. Now it's time to bring some of it back.

First Minnesota native named archbishop...

Born in St. Paul this is James J. Byrne, Auxiliary to the Archbishop of St. Paul, consecrated in 1947 at the age of 38.

What the old altar cards atop the altar of Pius X looked like...

Altar containing the incorrupt body of Pope St. Pius X located in the Vatican Basilica.

These cards are still somewhere in the sacristy treasury of St. Peter's.

It will take the Italians to approach the canons and sacristy staff and to get these back.